Day 126 – Bogota, CO to Puerto Boyaca, CO

Day 126 – Bogotá, CO to Puerto Boyaca, CO      12/25/10      Mileage: 140

I met Brian for breakfast at the hotel and he and Andy hit the road shortly after heading south for Cali. It was nice to catch up with Brian again, and I probably will catch him again at some point.

Brian and Andy getting ready to head out…

I was heading northwest towards Medellin, but the wifi at the hotel was quite good so I made use of it to get another blog post up before hitting the road. Just after packing the bike it started to rain…crap. Oh well, such is life and hopefully it will clear up shortly so I can enjoy the twisty mountain roads between here and Medellin.

The rain did eventually let up and then stopped altogether…sweet! Now I can not only enjoy the twisty roads but also the views which were great!

Entering one of many military checkpoints along the road. Personally I’m glad they’re there. All the soldiers here carry really big guns! Here’s a close-up below…

It was still tough to make time as there were many slow moving trucks and few opportunities to pass.

 I had one close call passing a truck…let’s just say if I were driving car it would have been a head-on with the truck coming the other way, but on the bike I was able to squirt by between the two trucks. My butt puckered up so tight I’ll be farting bits of my seat for a week. The upside to having a close call is it brings you back to reality, reminds you of your mortality and for me it refocuses my eye on the prize…to get to the tip of South America (and back home in one piece)!  I wish I had the helmet cam on movie mode…it would have been a hell of a movie!

Soon it became apparent that I was not going to make it all the way to Medellin before nightfall, so at 4 in the afternoon I pulled off the road at a $10 hotel that was quite nice for the money. I had dinner at a little roadside stand…2 epanadas, yogurt, and 2 beers.

Tomorrow it’s back on the road to Medellin…